This invention is in the field of rotary engine devices having axially slidable vanes in a fixed chamber extending oblique to the axis of rotation.
Engine devices of the above type are known, as exemplified by the patent to Waldie U.S. Pat. No. 2,380,886. However, in all such devices known to this applicant, the side walls and outer periphery of the chamber are stationary and the vanes must slide along all those surfaces as they rotate, thus inducing excessive wear and presenting sealing problems. Furthermore, in such prior art devices constructed as internal combustion engines it was necessary to accomplish a complete cycle of intake, ignition, power stroke and exhaust for each expansible chamber once during each revolution of the rotor. Other prior art devices propose motors of this type wherein the sides of the chamber are not oblique to the axis but undulate in an axial direction and wherein the casing and rotor rotate in opposite directions, seeking to provide four-stroke-cycle operation. Such devices, however, are complicated and difficult to construct.